Early years The station first went on the air in 1948 as WERE-FM and was the FM outlet for
WERE (1300 AM), where it primarily simulcast the programming of its more popular AM sister station over the next 24 years. Founded by former Cleveland mayor
Ray T. Miller's Cleveland Broadcasting Incorporated, WERE-FM actually signed on one year prior to its AM counterpart. During the 1950s, WERE, and by extension, WERE-FM, was the first popular
Top 40 station in the market, spearheaded by now-legendary personalities like
Bill Randle, "Captain" Carl Reese, Phil McLean, Ronnie Barrett, Howie Lund and Bob Forster. Randle was the most influential of the group, as he was the first major-market disk jockey in the Northeast United States to play
Elvis Presley and bolstered the careers of a number of up-and-coming musicians, including
The Four Lads,
Bobby Darin and
Fats Domino. Future NBC announcer and voice-over artist
Danny Dark also was a host on WERE in the early 1960s. After Ray T. Miller's death in 1966, Cleveland Broadcasting Incorporated was acquired by Atlantic States Industries (ASI) for a combined $9 million in May 1968. Due to ASI already owning five AM stations and one FM station and because of an interim policy/proposed rule by the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that prohibited the purchase of an AM and FM station in the same market—the "one-to-a-customer" policy—the FCC ordered the divestiture of WERE-FM, along with
WLEC and
WLEC-FM in
Sandusky, to a third party. WLEC and WLEC-FM were divested to
RadiOhio that December, and WERE-FM was sold to L. E. Chenault (of
Drake-Chenault Enterprises) concurrently; both deals fell through. WLEC AM/FM were ultimately retained by the sellers and spun off to a limited partnership, Lake Erie Broadcasting.
KFAC and
KFAC-FM in
Los Angeles were given waivers to the "one-to-a-customer" policy, and the deal was approved by the commission on October 29, 1969,
General Cinema Corporation acquired WERE-FM in May 1970 for $525,000, the deal was approved that July; ASI was later granted a tax break by the FCC with the sale. Olivia-Neuhoff was headed up by George Olivia, Jr. and WERE general manager Paul Neuhoff; they had also acquired WERE from ASI for $3.1 million that April, reuniting both stations. Despite the sale, both stations kept "GCC Communications of Cleveland" as the licensee name until they were sold again in 1986. During the next 14 years, the station would go on to enjoy moderate success in the face of significant competition from crosstown rock juggernaut,
WMMS. WGCL enjoyed some of the areas best-known air personalities over time, such as: J. Michael Wilson, Bumper Morgan, Dave Sharp, Eric Cramer & Uncle Vic. Of course, one of G98's most recognized air personalities throughout the 1980s was
"Dancin" Danny Wright, who later had a long stretch in afternoon drive at country
WGAR-FM. He later hosted a nationally syndicated show,
Jones Radio Network's
Danny Wright All Night. WGCL's best showing in the
Cleveland Arbitron ratings was in 1982 when they briefly overtook WMMS in the top overall position, but after WMMS re-tooled and recaptured first place a short time later, WGCL slowly lost ground.
The North Coast eXpress from a television ad promoting WNCX's 1986 launch WGCL and WERE were sold by George Olivia's GCC Communications to Detroit-based Metropolis Broadcasting on June 18, 1986, for a combined $10 million. After the deal was completed, Metropolis changed WGCL's call letters to WNCX on October 22, 1986 (WNCX was to have stood for "North Coast eXpress", but was downplayed entirely after Metropolis executives failed to
service mark the slogan and WMMS did). The planned new format for the station notably boasted a large on and off-air staff composed mostly of Cleveland radio veterans–eight of whom had directly departed WMMS. This included:
John Gorman, former WMMS program director, as WNCX operations manager; Denny Sanders, 15-year WMMS veteran, as WNCX program director and afternoon host; Rhonda Kneifer, former WMMS program coordinator, as WNCX music director; Paul Tapie, former
WGAR (1220 AM) morning host, in the same capacity; former
WHK (1420 AM) program director and air personality Bernie Kimble, as midday host; "Spaceman Scott" Hughes, formerly of WMMS, as evening host; and Nancy Alden, formerly of
WKDD (96.5 FM) in Akron, as late night host. Recorded station IDs and imaging were created by acclaimed "Word Jazz" artist
Ken Nordine. WNCX's permanent eclectic rock/top 40 mixed format was unveiled afterward; Sanders and Gorman promised "a much different sound than other stations," and that they would "play a wide variety of music, 360 degrees of rock 'n' roll, from old to new to R&B," emphasizing new music, local records and included a Saturday night dance club music show. While the existing staff remained in place at first, Gorman promptly departed, and later filed a
breach of contract lawsuit against Metropolis. By April, Rhonda Kiefer, Spaceman Scott and Nancy Alden left; followed shortly thereafter by Bernie Kimble, then Denny Sanders at the end of August; Most of the dismissed personalities enjoyed longevity and success in the market elsewhere: John Gorman became WMJI program director in 1991 and again at WMMS in 1994, later establishing
internet radio station
oWOW Radio. Sanders joined WMJI in 1988 and succeeded Gorman as program director in 1996, with the station winning the National Association Of Broadcasters "Large Market Station Of The Year" award in 1998; Spaceman Scott went to
WRQK in
Canton as program director, then rejoined WMMS in the early 90s; Nancy Alden went to
WDOK later in 1987 and was a fixture at that station for many years; Bernie Kimble joined
WNWV as program director; and newscaster Jack Speer is currently a news anchor for
NPR in
Washington, D.C. Throughout January 1987, Metropolis entered in negotiations to purchase
WWDC and
WWDC-FM in Washington, D.C. for $53 million, but a tentative deal was never fully reached. As it turned out, Metropolis wound up exiting broadcasting completely within the next 18 months; WDTX in Detroit—their sole other station—was sold for $12 million in March 1988, and Metropolis co-owner Harvey Deutch died from cancer the following month. WNCX and WERE were then put on the block, leading most observers to conclude that Metropolis Broadcasting was poorly organized and under-financed right from the start. Cleveland-based Metroplex Communications, in a joint venture with area jeweler Larry Robinson, purchased both stations in July 1988 for $11.6 million. Metroplex was headed by Norman Wain and Bob Weiss, who once owned
WIXY and WDOK in the late 1960s; Robinson also had previous station ownership experience—having owned WIXY's successor WBBG, along with WMJI—in the early 1980s.
Evolution to classic rock - who served as afternoon host on WNCX from 1990 until his death in 2021. Garrett hosted the
Saturday Night Live House Party for 31 years (two of those years with
Ron Sweed as co-host under his "The Ghoul" persona) until leaving in August 2018. Bill Louis, also a Cleveland native, took over as midday host on September 25, 1987, a time slot he hosted until he retired on December 31, 2021; Perhaps the station's best-known local personality, area rock musician
Michael Stanley joined WNCX on September 17, 1990, to host an early-evening program entitled
In the Heartland. The success of that one-hour show eventually led to Stanley taking over the afternoon shift outright in May 1992, which he continued to host for nearly 29 years until his death on March 5, 2021. Paul Tapie continued on in morning drive, later paired with market veteran Bill Stallings as co-host, While a novice to broadcasting, Trivisonno had garnered notoriety in the market as "Mr. Know-It-All," a regular caller to
Pete Franklin's
Sportsline on
WWWE (1100 AM) throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Tapie left the station in April 1989;
Those Guys had only marginal success in Cleveland and were regularly criticized by the local paper, often speculating on their departure date from WNCX; Shirley was joined by Paul Ingles and holdover Mike Trivisonno; Ingles soon left, In addition to his new role headlining the morning show, Shirley also hosted a one-hour evening program titled
The British Invasion. WNCX signed a deal in August 1992 to carry
The Howard Stern Show, based at
WXRK in
New York City, beginning that August 31; Skip Herman and Mike Trivisonno were dismissed and Jerry Shirley was reassigned to the overnight shift. Then-program director Doug Podell had worked with
Howard Stern in the early 1980s at rock station
WWWW in
Detroit prior to its switch to a
country format (an event depicted in Stern's autobiographical film
Private Parts). Andy Bloom, the same programming consultant who convinced Paul Ingles to hire
Those Guys in the Morning, was brought back to consult on the Stern start-up, as he had been the program director at
WYSP in
Philadelphia and
KLSX in
Los Angeles when both picked up Stern's show; Bloom would do the same for future affiliates as well. WNCX in Cleveland was just the sixth station (and the fifth affiliate after Stern's flagship WXRK) out of more than 60 nationally to carry
The Howard Stern Show. and its philosophy of "going to war" with competition Among the most notorious Howard Stern programs/broadcasts occurred in Cleveland on June 10, 1994. Having taken his radio show from
Arbitron ranked #13 to #1 among all radio listeners in less than two years, Stern promised to have a street party and to broadcast a "funeral" for his competition live from the streets of Cleveland. During this now infamous broadcast, an engineer from WMMS snipped a broadcast wire that was used to feed the
satellite uplink for the program, the engineer was subsequently caught, arrested and prosecuted. Stern continued on with the program over a phone line as engineers quickly patched the broadcast wire back together: WNCX enjoyed a great deal of success with the Stern show for the next 13 years. In October 2004, Stern announced that he would be leave terrestrial radio and move his radio program to
Sirius Satellite Radio, a subscription radio service where he could avoid the content restrictions being forced on to him by the
FCC. His final live broadcast aired on WNCX on December 16, 2005; program director Bill Louis reflected on the show's run, days after Stern's final broadcast: "It's difficult to imagine the mornings without him... what [Stern] brought was a very specialized and special form of entertainment that no one is ever going to duplicate."
Corporate radio Metroplex Communications merged into
San Antonio-based
Clear Channel Communications in a combined $54 million deal announced in October 1993, this included WNCX and WERE; Clear Channel would then take control of WENZ's sales operations in March 1994 via a
joint sales agreement, eventually buying the station outright in 1996. Following passage of the
Telecom Act of 1996, Clear Channel announced a $4.4 billion merger with
Jacor in 1998; to comply with federal ownership guidelines, Clear Channel sold off WNCX to
Infinity Broadcasting, while WERE and WENZ were sold to
Radio One. In the wake of Stern's departure,
CBS Radio (the renamed Infinity Broadcasting) launched a
hot talk format titled
Free FM; while WNCX did not adopt this brand or format, it did sign up for one of the regionally syndicated morning shows CBS offered under the banner:
The David Lee Roth Show, hosted by musician
David Lee Roth, which premiered on January 3, 2006. Due to very low ratings nationally and critical drubbings in the press, Roth's show was canceled on April 21; WNCX opted for a rotation of local hosts in the timeslot before hiring Mud (Wynn Richards), Kim Mihalik and newscaster Mike Olszewski in July 2006. Mud left the station in July 2008 and was replaced by Scott Miller; Kim Mihalik was dropped from the show that October; and Olszewski was replaced by local stand-up comedian Jeff Blanchard in April 2009. On October 27, 2010, WNCX announced the hiring of
Maxwell (Ben Bornstein)—formerly of WMMS—as host of
The Maxwell Show, replacing both Scott Miller and Jeff Blanchard, along with producer Dave Jockers; Jockers had been the local producer for
The Howard Stern Show and all subsequent morning shows, in addition to having been the station's assistant program director and music director from 1996 onward. Regarding their dismissal, program director Bill Louis commented, "sadly, this a bottom-line business."
The Maxwell Show was cancelled on August 25, 2011; local media speculated that, in addition to "flagging ratings," the show was cancelled to make room for "a new, high-profile, multi-person morning show" at sister station
WKRK-FM (92.3 FM) as that station transitioned to a
sports format. Local personality Slats (Tim Guinane), previously heard on WMMS and WXTM (WKRK-FM's predecessor), took over as morning host that November 7, where he remains to this day. On February 2, 2017, CBS Radio announced it would merge with
Entercom. The merger was approved on November 9, 2017, and was consummated on November 17. ==Current programming==